Tomorrow is World Book Day and Co Longford is making a big effort for the occasion by extending the event to 10 days.
According to the county's arts officer, Mr Fergus Kennedy, the Longford County Library Service and Arts Service have organised a unique series of events. In each of the six library branches throughout the county a series of public readings has been arranged.
"These are not occasions for the elite, the literati or the intelligentsia but for all the people of the county," he said.
"We have asked the ordinary people of the county, representative of all ages and walks of life, to read for approximately five minutes," he said.
"The subject matter will be a piece of prose or poetry which at some point in their lives has moved them, influenced them or simply made them laugh," he said.
"These literary evenings will be community events in their purest form. Those taking part will vary from a nine-year-old schoolchild to a 91-year-old Civil War veteran.
"We have also arranged that children from a school with hearing difficulties will sign read a children's poem.
"In addition we will have young women from St Mel's Travellers' Training Unit reading alongside politicians, clergy and people from the professions," he said.
Mr Kennedy said the people of the county were very proud of their literary heritage in the English language which stretched from Oliver Goldsmith and Maria Edgeworth to contemporary writers such as Vona Groarke and Ciaran Folan.
He said that while Longford was a small rural county with a population of only 30,000, the county has five writers' groups and annually hosted the Edgeworth Literary Weekend and the Oliver Goldsmith Summer School.
He added that the Longford County Library Services loaned out 150,000 volumes last year to adults and a further 15,000 childrens books through the school library system.
Full details of the events can be had by calling Longford County Library and Arts Service at 043-41124/48376.